In March 2001, San Diego officials settled a lawsuit filed by a group of disabled activists who wanted improved access to Qualcomm Stadium – at a cost to taxpayers of more than $6.5 million.

Those same activists lobbied for similar improvements at downtown's Civic Theatre. Recently, their requests were granted. About $38,000 worth of renovations, including new seats and a system to aid those with visual and hearing impairments, are scheduled to be finished by mid-March.

Activists Beverly Walker and Noel Neudeck are now threatening to take the city and the Padres to court if the city approves the team's architectural plans for the downtown ballpark.

They contend that the plans violate disabled-access law.

"If the city and Padres do not make the stadium accessible for all people with disabilities and they do not comply with both (the federal Americans With Disabilities Act) and Title 24 (state law), then yes, a lawsuit will be filed," Walker said.

The city, which has hired a consultant to review the ballpark plans to ensure they comply with disability law, is expected to finish reviewing them and possibly issue permits in the next couple of months. So far, officials say, the plans appear to be in compliance.

Qualcomm issue

Recently, the activists have been back in court to complain that the city is not complying with the terms of the Qualcomm settlement agreement, in which the city promised to finish $5.25 million worth of improvements at the stadium by April. The improvements consist largely of installing new seats and elevators.

"The bottom line is the city is breaching our agreement," said Walker, who, as the primary plaintiff in the lawsuit, received $150,000 in damages.

Her group is asking for damages based on a rate of $1,000 for every seat that would be affected by the delays in installing the elevators.

After prolonged negotiations, the city has agreed to install five elevators, three on the east side of the stadium and two on the west, that will carry fans between the field and plaza levels, said Stephen Shushan, assistant stadium manager. The levels are now connected only by long stairways.

The city also is installing 172 additional pairs of wheelchair spaces and companion seats, 318 seats for people who are semiambulatory and need extra room to get in and out, and 242 aisle seats with no arm on the outside so people can slide in more easily.

City officials say they hope to have most of the work done at Qualcomm before the Padres' home opener in April, but that some of it may not be completed until January, in time for the Super Bowl XXXVII.

"We're working at it. We're still trying to meet that (April) deadline," said Frank Belock, the city's director of engineering. "It's the elevators that are taking a little time, and they're going to get put in incrementally."

Belock said it "took longer than we'd hoped" to negotiate with the litigants, design the new seats and elevators and hire a contractor.

Attorney Amy Vandeveld, who represented Walker's group in the lawsuit, said her clients should not be blamed for city officials' failure to meet the deadline in the settlement agreement.

"They're not meeting the deadline because they did not take action in a timely fashion," she said. "They knew what was required under the settlement agreement as early as November 2000."

Vandeveld said the city did not advise her clients until July that the number of seats and types of elevators it had originally agreed to install would not fit.

Other facilities

Efforts by disabled activists are not limited to improving access to stadiums and theaters.

City officials acknowledge that many other public facilities are not in compliance with disability law. Since 1996, the city has spent $9 million to modify buildings, ramps and curbs on municipal streets to comply with the law, according to Linda Woodbury, the city's disability services coordinator.

That barely put a dent in the "to-do" list of projects. Woodbury estimates it will cost at least $175 million to bring all city buildings and other public facilities into compliance.

Walker and Neudeck are trying to persuade the city and the Padres that the slope of the ramps at the new ballpark should be lowered on the plans before any more concrete is poured. The ballpark will become a public facility 30 years after it is built.

"My personal opinion is they already have their drawings and they don't want to change them," Walker said of the Padres. "They want their ballpark the way they want their ballpark and they don't care."

"The Padres have made a commitment very early on in the process to make this an extraordinarily accessible ballpark and we remain committed to that," Judson said late last month.

He said the team has hired a team of consultants to make sure that every detail on 1,200 pages of planning documents for this "extremely complex facility" complies with state and federal law.

"Not only will we meet the code, we will also enhance the accessibility with elevators and other ways to circulate the facility," he said, adding that the ballpark is being designed with more elevators than Qualcomm.

The city already has had its share of ballpark-related lawsuits, which have prevented it from issuing $166 million in bonds to pay for its share of the project. But the most recent lawsuit was decided in the city's favor late last month and the city now expects to issue bonds within a month.

Deputy City Manager Bruce Herring disagrees with Walker, who contends the city would be liable if her group sues over the ballpark plans.

Under the city's agreement with the Padres, he said, it is the club that is legally responsible for building the ballpark in compliance with state and federal law.

Nevertheless, the city has hired its own consultant to review the plans. Herring said the required slope is "somewhat a matter of interpretation," but that so far the plans have been found to meet legal requirements.

Vandeveld, who received $1.3 million in attorney fees and other payments in the Qualcomm lawsuit, says the city would be wise to listen to her clients. She notes that there would have been no lawsuit against Qualcomm if city officials had listened to Walker while the $78 million stadium renovation was under way.